How did alcohol affect you before you built up tolerance?

[ImpulsE69]

This sounds like a study I should embark on immediately.

 

[John Connor]

wel i buit up a tollace a long tiime aggo. i nevver geet drunk anymoore and i am berry coherent.

 

[John Connor]

To be honest. I must have built up a tolerance, well sort of. On New Years Eve 2005 I was depressed, woke up and started to drink. I polished off a fifth of Jack Daniels and half a fifth of Captain Morgan. Outside of being a little tipsy, I puked my guts out until I was puking up nothing but bile. I went to the hospital thinking I had alcohol poisoning where they gave me an IV with something to combat the nausea. Couple hours latter I went home hungry as hell, ate, went to bed and the next morning went into work which apparently I wasn't suppose to. I could have sworn my boss told me to come in on the weekend for inventory. But no hangover or anything. Sober as a preacher getting it on in the missionary position on a Sunday.

 

[Muse]

I really have little tolerance, have never built up any. If I drink 4 ounces of wine, I already feel it plenty. One beer, I've had enough. Those are my limits right there. And if I'm going to drive, I don't drink, period. Last I drank was about 3 ounces of red wine around 3 days ago. I never ever crave alcohol. If I get depressed I never think of reaching for alcohol. I have other ways of dealing with it, constructive ways.

 

[sdifox]

I am oosy if there is an open bottle of wine at the table. Once I had Italian meatballs cooked with wine for lunch and I had to lie down for the afternoon.

 

[IEC]

If you're building up a tolerance you're likely an alcoholic. Because that requires drinking quite a bit more than the guidelines recommend for men (no more than 2 drinks in 1 day). For women, that number is halved due to physical differences.

For OP, he should probably never have more than 1 drink (and even that might be too much based on his symptoms), because it's probable he has the ALDH2 mutation common in many of Asian descent. With how severe he describes his reaction to alcohol (half a cup of beer) it's likely he has a double dose of the mutated gene, meaning he processes alcohol to acetaldehyde, but then has trouble metabolizing it further. This causes his symptoms + increases risk of cancer vs people without the genetic mutation if he drinks too much anyways.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

What I find confusing though is that, you know, people say that Asians have a higher probability of lacking the gene that processes acetaldehyde, but Asians in Asian countries drink *hard*, especially in work situations. Are these people getting the throbbing headaches and racing heart rate but just masochistically drinking hard on a constant basis anyway?

 

[sdifox]

What I find confusing though is that, you know, people say that Asians have a higher probability of lacking the gene that processes acetaldehyde, but Asians in Asian countries drink *hard*, especially in work situations. Are these people getting the throbbing headaches and racing heart rate but just masochistically drinking hard on a constant basis anyway?

basically...binge drinkers

 

[Thebobo]

I have experience with cheap gallons of Vodka and waking up on the kitchen floor wondering how you got there.

i got totally smashed at the Munich Oktoberfest and came down with the hives, air force doc had to give me a shot to get the shit under control. went to the fest the next year and was super paranoid about drinking again, said fuckit ill just get another shot if i get that shit again, got smashed again and no hives. so i dunno if it was histamines or not.

Ugh you're allergic to beer?

 

[Scarpozzi]

Alcohol's a drug and everything from your body weight, to food intake, to hydration level, to general fatigue (how much slept you got the night before) can affect how it affects you.

I have more tolerance for alcohol the earlier in the day I consume it. I learned shortly after turning 21 that when I was going out on a night's binge, I did far better the next day by starting at 3pm or earlier. It meant I never had to play catch up and actually paced myself far better... A lot of people try to consume too many drinks too quickly because of time limits on most parties or social gatherings. That's where they run into the real issues...

 

[jiy78]

I left alcohol but i was addicted in the past.

 

[Avalon]

Hmmmm... So what did you feel when you initially started drinking alcohol when you were young?

I went on a food tour yesterday that included some small samples of vodka and beer. I never even finished any of my samples and my heart was racing at 140 BPM according to the FitBit and I felt like shit. I actually wasn't even flush or red.

So this isn't something that inexperienced drinkers have to initially "break through" by simply drinking more often and building up tolerance?

No, that's definitely not normal. Sounds like your body is having a bad reaction to the alcohol. When I first started drinking, a few beers would make me feel really relaxed, a bit off center, and generally make me a bit more silly. Not much has changed

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Interesting.

When you guys get a hangover, are the symptoms similar to what I get immediately?

Throbbing headache, racing heart, nausea?

I'm wondering if my body just completely skips the relaxing / "warm blanket" effects of alcohol and goes straight to an immediate hangover.

FYI I *have* tried a ton of different types of alcohol before, from 1% beers in Japan all the way to $50 glasses of whiskey. All results are similar, so it's not just a reaction to allergens in hops or something. It's literally the alcohol itself.

 

[Chaotic42]

Interesting.

When you guys get a hangover, are the symptoms similar to what I get immediately?

Throbbing headache, racing heart, nausea?

I'm wondering if my body just completely skips the relaxing / "warm blanket" effects of alcohol and goes straight to an immediate hangover.

FYI I *have* tried a ton of different types of alcohol before, from 1% beers in Japan all the way to $50 glasses of whiskey. All results are similar, so it's not just a reaction to allergens in hops or something. It's literally the alcohol itself.

Sounds like inflammation to me. I wonder if you could take an alcohol-safe antihistamine with your alcohol and see what happens (obviously be careful here).